Ricardo Geromel is the managing partner of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. In his journey to disrupt the beautiful game, his main goals are to win championships and make the Strikers a global reference in innovation. Former Strikers players include George Best, Gerd Muller, Gordon Banks, Elias Figueroa, Nene Cubillas, Ray Hudson and other soccer legends.
Ricardo co-wrote a cover story of Forbes Magazine, featuring an interview with Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's president.
The globetrotter has worked in five continents in different sectors: as agricultural commodities trader for Noble Group, Asia's largest diversified commodities trading company, in Hong Kong, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Ricardo also worked as project manager in Guinea Conakry for Bolloré Group, a French conglomerate that operates the most extensive integrated logistics network in Africa. Ricardo has also worked in the soccer industry in Beijing, China. Ricardo has been writing for Forbes since July 2011.
Fluent in five languages, Ricardo holds a a Masters in Management from ESCP Europe, Paris, and a bachelor’s degree in business management from Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey.
Tips and stories ideas are always welcome. Find Ricardo in twitter @ricardogeromel

Entrepreneurs, Not Soccer Players, Will Determine Brazil's Future

“Abroad, when you want to learn about a people, you examine their fiction… In Brazil, soccer plays the role of fiction” wrote Nelson Rodrigues, one of Brazil’s most important playwrights.

It may sound like the plot of a magical-realism novel, but many Brazilians are saying they hope their national soccer team to lose as soon as possible. Why? So the people don’t get too distracted by the modern panem et circenses and focus instead on what really matters for them and for the future of their nation- the upcoming presidential elections in October. A Forbes article explains in detail How The 2014 FIFA World Cup Became The Worst Publicity Stunt In History.

In 1970, when Brazil won its third Soccer World Cup, the local dictators used the image of those champions as propaganda. Brazilians are so passionate about soccer that Luiz Felipe Scolari, Brazil’s current head coach, affirmed that “in Brazil soccer is a religion.” In Latin America’s largest country, if you don’t know anything about soccer you will probably struggle in casual conversation considering that even grandmothers can not only name the line up of the national team but also openly criticize the head coach. When those who breathe soccer affirm that they hope their national team will lose, it is easy to conclude that will be hard for the local government to profit from what happens on the pitch.

The massive protests against the amount of money spent in the construction of soccer stadiums, the quality of public health and education, the chaotic state of public transportation, and the ubiquitous corruption started in June last year. It was the first time since the early 90s that Brazilians took to the streets to protest on such a scale. One of the most common demands was to ask politicians to allocate more money toward improving people’s lives and less to their own pockets. Brazilians were optimistic that those disorganized protests would result in effective change. I even wrote an article entitled, “It Might As Well Be Spring.” Fast-forward one year: the status quo is still the same; no structural change has really taken place.

Stefan Zweig was an Austrian novelist who lived in Brazil and seized the nation’s potential to become a superpower. In 1941, he wrote the book, ‘Brazil, Land of the future.’ Brazilians turned the title of his book into a maxim that summarizes the pervasive frustration with their homeland, “Brazil is, indeed, the country of the future…and it will always be.”

My personal theory is that Brazil has been pregnant with itself. The world thought that Brazil’s pregnancy was officially announced when the British magazine The Economist placed the statue of Christ The Redeemer taking off like a skyrocket in its cover page in 2009. The due date was expected to be the World Cup kickoff - in 6 days – when a new Brazil would be born, ready to showcase that it deserves to be considered a first-world country. However, people have realized that the baby will not be due any time soon; Brazil is still the same. Although over 40 million people have risen out of poverty in the past 10 years, Brazil was supposed to finally be ready to join a league of countries that provide functional basic goods and services such as a reliable infrastructure, quality education, and efficient public transportation. The future, eagerly anticipated since Zweig wrote that book over 70 years ago, would have arrived and a new Brazil would have been born. In this newborn Brazil, situations like the one described by Adrian Dinculescu, a businessman from Romania, would not happen: “Landing in Sao Paulo at 5:35am, waiting for the luggage for an hour, spending another 2.5 hours in traffic for a 35 km stretch… welcome to Brazil!!!” As Brazilians know, this kind of situation has always been common. As Brazilians are finding out, it will remain common even after the World Cup.

So, what should Brazilians do? I am not sure. What will Brazilians do? Take to the streets to raise their voices against corruption, high cost of living, the precarious public transport system, Brazil’s red tape, politicians in general, the absurd amounts of taxpayers’ money being spent to host the FIFA World Cup and against more, much more.

How will the government react? By trying to minimize and isolate the protests, it will certainly focus on not doing anything that would add fuel to the inflammable country (e.g. shooting protesters). How should the government react? Here I will add my two cents. Brazil needs structural changes. The government should deliver concrete plans on how it will tackle poor education, fight corruption, improve public education, and so on. These plans should be presented in a transparent manner with clear milestones so that everyone would be able to tell specifically what is being done, when it will be ready, how much it is costing, and who the responsible people are. I agree that it sounds obvious, but since I have started reading newspapers –15 years ago- Brazil has been facing pretty much the same problems. That is one of the key reasons why Brazilians are taking to the streets: in a world that keeps evolving, Brazil’s deepest problems remain the same.

From the 66 Brazilian billionaires, only Eduardo Saverin, Facebook’s cofounder and Brazil’s youngest billionaire, amassed the bulk of his fortune from a technology-related venture. (Photo credit: mkhmarketing)

Brazil’s government must also focus on fostering entrepreneurship. Brazil ranks 116th in the World Bank ease of doing business index. It is just unacceptable how long it takes to open and close businesses; A study by Endeavour reveals that 76% of Brazilians would prefer to be their own bosses rather than work for someone else – compared to 37% in the European Union and 51% in the US. A big hit song in the 90s had a chorus that asked, “Who never Dreamt of Becoming a Soccer Player?” Today, Brazilians dream of becoming entrepreneurs. From the 1645 moguls in Forbes last World’s billionaires list, 66% were entrepreneurs and virtually all of the rest were related to entrepreneurs – either lucky sperms or married to the ‘right’ person or inherited a small business and turned it into a billionaire empire. For Brazil to prosper and for that so-expected future to finally arrive, Brazil must first turn itself into a place that welcomes entrepreneurs. How? A great first step would be to foster initiatives like Startup Brasil and SEED – both clearly inspired by the successful Startup Chile program.

Start-Up Brasil, a National Startup Acceleration Program, is an initiative of the Brazilian Federal Government, created by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação – MCTI), partnering with accelerators, to support new technology-based companies: startups. For a list of all the participants, visit Startup Brasil’s website.

SEED – Startups and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Development – is an accelerator program crafted by Minas Gerais former State governor Anastasia that selects 40 startups to receive equity free seed capital and be accelerated for a period of 6 months in Belo Horizonte, where Google placed its Latin America R&D center.

In Brazil, the stereotype of a government employee is a person who aims for stability, is better connected than educated, less competent and driven than those in the private sector and is also, in one way or another, corrupt. Those running SEED are not the average Brazilian public employee (unfortunately). For instance, André Barrence, Chairman of SEED, has a master’s degree from London School of Economics and refused to join the prestigious Techstars accelerator in Europe to work for the governor of Minas Gerais.

SEED organized a DemoDay to showcase the first 40 startups that were selected to its program. Mike Lyons, professor at Stanford University, opened the event with a keynote speech about the importance of creating an ecosystem that pushes people to fail, “In the Silicon Valley, when an entrepreneur fails, he is pushed to fail again, and again, and again, until he succeeds.” I also chatted for a long time with Manoel Lemos, CTO of Abril Group, owned by Brazilian billionaire family Civita. Lemos emphasized that “Technology has disrupted the media business and will affect every other industry sooner or later. Brazil needs more ventures like SEED that will give the right tools to young people to turn their ideas into viable businesses.” The event was full of high profile people like Fernando Borges, president of Brazilian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (ABVCAP), who went straight to the point, “There is no shortage of capital in Brazil, but we need to create more spaces where entrepreneurs interact with investors.” I have participated in similar events in San Francisco, New York, Paris, and Tel Aviv. I was surprised to notice myself describing an event organized and financed by the government as of world-class caliber.

I challenged Leandro Campos, Giuliano Bittencourt and Bruno Vidigal Coscarelli, who are also government employees working to make SEED happen, to each name only one startup they would put their own money on. They had a hard time picking only one, but these were their favorites:

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